User-friendly websites make it easier for visitors to find what they need and interact with its features, leading to greater engagement, higher conversion rates, and less maintenance overhead for businesses.
Sticking to best practices for user-friendly web design may tempt businesses, but adhering to them can save time and money in the long run.
Usability
User-friendly websites are those visitors can readily understand and navigate easily, from simple navigation, clear and logically structured content, mobile-first design and responsive navigation. Visitors typically visit your site with some specific goal in mind, such as filling out a contact form, learning about store hours or making a purchase; if they can’t locate what they’re searching for or the website design is too difficult or confusing, they’ll leave shortly after that.
Usability refers to the ease with which visitors can learn and become proficient with a design interface, such as how quickly visitors become acclimated with it and whether regaining proficiency after periods of inactivity is effortless, along with overall satisfaction with the design experience.
User-friendly websites are defined as those that follow best practices and standards in their markup and code, often leading to faster loading speeds that are more robust and dependable and easier bug tracking and troubleshooting should any errors arise. It helps lower maintenance and support costs, improve SEO rankings, and significantly lower SEO fees – not forgetting their ability to build brand recognition and credibility and bring repeat customers – leading to significant returns on investments for businesses.
Navigation
User-friendly websites provide visitors with an effortless online experience that connects them with the information they require quickly and effortlessly, leading to higher engagement with website features, such as contacting businesses directly or subscribing to newsletters. Designing intuitive and user-friendly web design enables businesses to differentiate themselves from competitors while building their reputation, credibility, and trustworthiness among potential customers.
Navigation is a critical element of user-friendly design, from menus to footers. People tend to be creatures of habit and expect certain elements in certain places – for instance, most users anticipate seeing a navigation bar near the top or left side of a page; placing this element somewhere unexpected could confuse or cause them to leave entirely.
Navigation includes dropdown menus and submenus. While some designers like to experiment with novel ways of presenting these features, sticking with what most users are used to seeing can provide a more consistent and comfortable user experience.
Card sorting is an effective way to assess how users perceive your website’s navigation. Arrange a stack of index cards representing various pages on the website, invite participants, and have them sort the cards into categories they understand. After collecting and analysing results, your website’s navigation should feel intuitive to visitors.
Content
Websites that focus on user experience offer many advantages for visitors and the business. Their simple navigation encourages more time spent browsing the site, with visitors spending longer interacting with its features such as filling out contact forms or subscribing to newsletters – which in turn may lead to conversions – improving the reputation of the business while increasing customer retention rates – not forgetting they’re easier to manage, lowering maintenance costs over time.
Step one in creating an accessible and user-friendly web design is identifying what information your audience requires, developing content tailored to those needs and building trust among visitors. For instance, if your product or service category is new to them, educational content can help increase knowledge. Logos of companies who use your product/service may help build credibility and establish trust.
Once again, to make your website content easy to read, consider using clear fonts and a minimalistic design with minimal visual elements, such as headings or lists, to break up blocks of text into more digestible portions. Finally, to increase accessibility further, add captions for all video content and ensure those with cognitive disabilities can recognise clickable links.
Forms
Unreadable field labels are one of the main barriers to user-friendliness on web forms. Labels should be clear and concise, communicating to users exactly what each field is intended for and remaining visible even once filled out. Furthermore, fields requiring duplicate information must be avoided since users could inadvertently click one before reading its label and be confused by its results. Furthermore, avoid “whisking” methods of hiding field labels, confusing users into providing incorrect data.